Compliance Briefing — August 12, 2024
With fewer than five months left before the EU Deforestation Regulation applies to large operators, compliance teams must finish geolocation traceability, risk assessments, and statement templates for coffee, cocoa, timber, rubber, soy, palm oil, and cattle supply chains.
Executive briefing: Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products applies to large companies from December 30, 2024. Operators placing relevant commodities on the EU market must perform due diligence that confirms products are deforestation-free, legally produced, and geolocated to plot level. Competent authorities will verify due diligence statements via the EU Information System that goes live later in 2024.
Key compliance checkpoints
- Traceability. Capture geolocation coordinates for every production plot and link them to transaction documentation, suppliers, and customs data.
- Risk assessment. Implement country risk scoring, satellite imagery reviews, and mitigation steps for high-risk jurisdictions before issuing due diligence statements.
- Statement generation. Prepare digital due diligence statements covering commodity, quantity, origin, and risk findings for submission through the EU system.
Control alignment
- Integrate ESG systems. Align EUDR controls with CSRD ESRS E4 biodiversity disclosures and supply chain human rights monitoring to streamline reporting.
- Contract governance. Update supplier contracts with data sharing, remediation, and audit rights that satisfy Article 9 obligations.
- Monitoring cadence. Deploy satellite monitoring and grievance hotlines to detect land-use change and escalate mitigation quickly.
Enablement moves
- Stand up cross-functional working groups linking procurement, sustainability, customs, and legal teams.
- Test data pipelines feeding the EU Information System sandbox to validate APIs and statement schemas once available.
- Brief boards on enforcement risks, including penalties up to 4% of EU turnover and potential product seizure.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1115 on deforestation-free products
- European Commission: EUDR FAQs and implementation guidance
Zeph Tech orchestrates EUDR due diligence—consolidating geospatial evidence, supplier attestations, and mitigation workflows ahead of the December 2024 enforcement date.